Elmira man spots father in Korean War photo

Penfield woman has goal to ID soldiers in Department of Defense pictures from 1950

U.S. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur, right, and Lt. Gen. Walton H. Walker, commander of ground forces in Korea, arrive at the airfield in Korea, prior to MacArthur’s departure for Tokyo on July 26, 1950. In the background, standing, wearing sunglasses is Allan L. Gardner of Norwich, N.Y.
(Photo:
OFFICIAL DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE PHOTO
)

Jeffrey Gardner wrote to her by email, "Soldier in sunglasses, looks like my father, Allan L. Gardner."

Indeed it was Allan L. Gardner, of Norwich, N.Y. Mr. Gardner passed away in 1985 in Norwich at age 53.

Interestingly, the 18-year-old was among a handful of soldiers in the picture with U.S. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Lt. Gen. Walton H. Walker, commander of ground forces in Korea.

"It's kind of uncanny," said Jeffrey Gardner, 49, who served four years in the U.S. Navy because of his father's inspiration. "It is kind of cool.

"He was a Pfc. It's great to see him with the actual supervisors, the upper echelon. He died when I was 20."

Mr. Gardner was the father of three sons.

The image is one of 138 captured by the Department of Defense during the first three brutal months of the Korean War that are now, 61 years after the conflict ended, in the possession of Perkins-Carpenter, a Penfield woman for whom identifying the subjects of the photos has become a labor of love.

"There are fathers who didn't come home, there are grandfathers who didn't come home," said Perkins-Carpenter, 83, an Air Force veteran who trained stateside soldiers in water safety during the war. "Those who did come home, we're in our 80s now, so time is of the essence to get these photos to them."

In commemoration of the ceasefire that ended the fighting on July 27, 1953, and to assist in Perkins-Carpenter's effort, the Democrat and Chronicle newspaper in Rochester teamed with Kodak Alaris to scan the photos and create an online gallery of the images.

The Allan Gardner photo is the 10th positive match since the Snapshots from the Korean War website launched on July 25.

Allan L. Gardner
(Photo:
GARDNER FAMILY PHOTO
)

Many of the photos include captions identifying soldiers and their hometowns. But many others present something of a mystery. In one snapshot, an Army captain talks to three nuns at a railroad station. In another, unidentified soldiers camouflaged in leaves fire a rocket launcher.

The high quality of the photos and the captions and their provenance suggest they were issued by the government to newspapers around the country in the early stages of the conflict, when daily casualties were high.

The photos were given to the Monroe County chapter of the Korean War Veterans Association by a Rochester woman who found them among the possession of her late father, who was a military veteran. The woman, Brenda Clattenburg, said he amassed the collection during a career at the Batavia Daily News.

The chapter turned them over to Perkins-Carpenter, an active member of the organization, with the intent of tracking down the photo subjects and offering them copies.

Arthur Sharp, editor of The Graybeards, the official magazine of the Korean War Veterans Association, which published some of the photographs in 2012, along with a list of names in the captions, said it was rare to come across government-issued photos of the era.

"It's special because, relatively speaking, actual photos taken and released by the Department of Defense are scarce," Sharp said.

One of the photographs shows a 22-year-old Harry Quehl, then of Ft. Thomas, Kentucky, helping load a 100-pound bomb onto a B-29. Now 86 and retired in Weeki Wachee, Fla., learning of the photo from a reporter brought Quehl back to the six months he spent flying some 40 bombing missions over Korea.

"I'd love to see that photo," Quehl said. "Being a young guy, you don't understand what's going on or why you're there. It seemed like we were bombing an airfield every three days and there was nothing on it."

Kendrick Holle, 85, a retired lieutenant colonel who lives in Virginia, had no recollection of being photographed with his twin, Bradford Holle, and two other sets of twins at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, in July 1950.